Biotechnology is the use of living systems and organisms to develop or make useful products, and it is usually seen in agriculture, food production and medicine production. Modern use of similar terms includes genetic engineering as well as cell and tissue culture technologies. The concept encompasses a wide range of procedures for modifying living organisms according to human need.
Scope in India and abroad:
Similar to agricultural engineering biotechnology is again an interdisciplinary subject which contains many sub discipline such as process biotechnology, genetic engineering, molecular biotechnology, agricultural biotechnology, medical biotechnology, bioinformatics and so on. In the previous decade biotech industry was considered as one of the booming industry in India but the growth of the industry, vacancies for fresher’s have not meet the expectation. Though there is some hope that in near future it may grow further but the present industrial scope is quite limited.
Further analysis of the situation revealed lack of well trained and properly educated man power. The setting up of biotech industry requires huge initial investment and excellent technically sound professionals. To attain that status will take some time in India.
Presently, there are some Government and private-public initiatives which may help in supporting the industrial growth in this sector.
Countries like Australia, USA, UK and Germany are having ample scope in this sector especially in agriculture and medical biotech oriented fields. Service oriented sector is growing with Bioinformatics.
Students seeking a career in any biotech related subject must have patience to pursue higher academics up to doctoral and post doctoral level and acquire sound technical skills and should have a research oriented mentality to get success. Person looking success and establishment in early stage of their career should not try to pursue career in this stream.
The global biotech industry is growing fast and there is a demand for trained professionals in academics and industry. To meet the requirement several special supportive fellowship programs have been established especially for biotech candidates in various countries including India.
Biotech Park’s have been established in different states such as Andhra Pradesh (Genome Valley), Karnataka, Delhi, U.P, TamilNadu, Kerala and other places but entry level to these institutes is still for a highly trained professionals not for general graduates.
The changing scenario of biotech industry in India is again raising the hope. Some of the potential recruiters in this sector are: Avestagen Limited, Noida, Strand life sciences, Bangalore, GVK Biosciences, Hyderabad, DRL, Hyderabad, Biocon, Bangalore, panacea Biotech, Gurgaon etc.